Die Anwendung des Wortassoziationstests in der Gedächtnisdiagnostik bei älteren Patienten

Abstract

Use of the Word Association Technique for Memory Assessment in Older Patients Summary: A free single-word association test (WAT) was performed with 82 older neurological patients (age range: 60 to 85 years), as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. A list of 25 items was read to the patients twice. First, free associations were obtained and then, response consistency checked immediately. The number of correct repetitions was demonstrated to correlate substantially with other indicators of verbal memory (up to 0.77), such as Wechsler's Logical Memory, Wechsler's Verbal Paired Associates, and verbal learning scores in a selective reminding procedure, but also with rough estimates of cognitive dysfunction such as the Mini-Mental State score (0.59). Total free association response time yielded similarly high correlations with neuropsychological measures, but this was not the case for traditional WAT variables, such as response commonality. The older patients showed a tendency towards preferring paradigmatic associates, such as superordinate, coordinate or synonym responses, in contrast to syntagmatic reactions.